MEET OUR TEAM

Clients hire Communitas Consulting to manage and facilitate change in their organizations, design and move projects forward, and build traction and ownership for sustainability. Clients include foundations, nonprofits, government, hospitals, and post-secondary educational institutions that work on the local, state, regional or national levels.

Communitas Consulting engages a network of highly skilled professionals – bringing the right match of expertise and ability to complete each project.

SAPHIRA M. BAKER

PRINCIPAL

Saphira M. Baker is the founder of Communitas Consulting and Principal Consultant. Saphira established Communitas Consulting after more than twenty years of experience in senior positions in local government and nonprofit organizations. She is skilled in facilitating and developing effective cross-sector partnerships, leading strategic and community planning, managing successful grant making, and restructuring and focusing complex organizations. Her subject area expertise includes health and human services, secondary and post-secondary education, workforce development, civic engagement, urban planning, and community development.

Saphira Baker has served as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Human Services in Richmond, Virginia, directed a planning agency for children and family services for the City of Charlottesville and the County of Albemarle, Virginia, and directed workforce development for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a Lecturer in Strategic Planning at the Frank Batten School of Public Policy and Leadership at the University of Virginia. Saphira Baker earned her Masters of Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and her A.B. at Brown University. See resume for additional information.

CASEY COX

RESEARCH AND POLICY ANALYST

Casey Cox, Research and Policy Analyst, joined the Communitas Consulting team in 2009. Casey has experience leading large-scale data collection efforts for policy research in economics, education, and community assessment. She is accomplished at creating and managing complex data and information systems with accuracy and efficiency and has broad experience in data analysis, survey design, research interviews, and project management.

Her subject expertise includes community capacity building and youth access to college and financial aid. Casey Cox holds a B.A. in International Relations from Brigham Young University. Before joining Communitas Consulting, she was a project manager and research analyst at the University of Virginia.

ANITA MCGINTY

AFFILIATED CONSULTANT

Dr. Anita McGinty joined Communitas Consulting as a research affiliate in 2015. She is skilled in applying research design principles to a variety of project contexts to ensure information is data driven and rigorously grounded in scientific methods. Dr. McGinty holds a Ph.D in Applied Developmental Science from the University of Virginia. Her work over the past 16 years – across academic and applied settings – has centered on evaluating and improving the systems of support for young children’s healthy development.

She has led federally-funded grant initiatives on young children’s development while at UVA, led the state-wide rollout of a curricular reform in New York as the director of Professional Development for the Core Knowledge Foundation, and has consulted independently on local, state, and national initiatives. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Virginia.

SHEILA F. MAITH

AFFILIATED CONSULTANT

Sheila F. Maith brings 25 years of experience leading teams to deliver results. Her clients are leaders seeking to realize their institutional and personal leadership development goals with support from executive coaching, training, and strategic advising. Sheila draws upon her experience in government and in the non-profit and private sectors as an executive, a funder, an advocate, and a board member to deliver high value services to her clients. Sheila brings a wealth of experience including serving as Community Affairs Officer and Senior Advisor for the Federal Reserve Board; as Managing Director of Policy and Leadership Development at the Fannie Mae Foundation, and as Senior Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

She also held positions at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, The Enterprise Foundation (now Enterprise Community Partners) and at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Sheila earned a joint degree in law and public policy from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. She has an AB degree in public policy studies magna cum laude from Duke University. She has a certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. She is certified to administer the Leadership Circle™ Profile 360 assessment and is a TetraMapâ Certified Facilitator.

“Saphira has a huge strength as a writer and communicator and can present data in a thoughtful way.”

Kelly Chopus, CEO, Robins Foundation

“Outstanding quality, everything from being personable, organized, and every meeting we went into was a good conversation.”

Karen Reifenberger, COO, Piedmont Housing Alliance

“I can’t say enough good things about Saphira Baker and Communitas Consulting. She invests the time in preparation, and truly listening to stakeholders…Saphira provided a useful and practical structure for our community’s retreat. She promotes interest and involvement from everyone at the table.”

Mike Murphy, Charlottesville CPMT Chair

“Saphira has a huge strength as a writer and communicator and can present data in a thoughtful way.”

Kelly Chopus, CEO, Robins Foundation

“Outstanding quality, everything from being personable, organized, and every meeting we went into was a good conversation.”

Karen Reifenberger, COO, Piedmont Housing Alliance

“I can’t say enough good things about Saphira Baker and Communitas Consulting. She invests the time in preparation, and truly listening to stakeholders…Saphira provided a useful and practical structure for our community’s retreat. She promotes interest and involvement from everyone at the table.”

Mike Murphy, Charlottesville CPMT Chair

The name Communitas is a Greek word from which both community and communications are derived. Defined today as an intense community spirit; the feeling of great social equality, solidarity, and togetherness.